Gun sight



R. E. MOORE Nov. 25, 1958 GUN SIGHT FiledMay 15, 1957 INYENTOR. Jfab erZEQzw/z/Ww/"e,

United States Patent g V UN-SIGHT RobertEdwinMoore, Winnetka, Ill. 3 Ap licants: Ma /15, 1957, Serial No. 659,254

' sclaims.; c l.ss- -41 'Tliis'invention relates to a rear sighting device for ready attachment to a shotgun to improve the aim and accuracy of hunters and other marksmen.

Everyone who has ever hunted duck, pheasant, quail, and other fowl, knows the thrill of getting his gun to his shoulder when the'garne isffirst uncovered, taking quick aim, andfiring; but all too frequently the excitement of the occasion makes one forget the rudiments of good marksmanship. I r

Many persons can testify to the strong urge and tendency to take aim by sighting angularlyover the end of'the'gun barrel rather "than by sighting along the barrel over the front sight, ,as is necessary to make consistent hits. The natural desire for getting in ones shots as quickly as possible tendis' to detract from the attention thatshould be givent o proper aim of the gun.

one of the principal objects of my invention is to provide a gun sight that forces the marksman-to sight along the gun barrel in order to see the target, and thereby overcomes the tendency to shoot over the target.

Another important object of the invention is to provide a gun sight which requires no modification of the gun or its barrel to apply the sight.

In accordance with the principles of my invention, I provide, a rear gun sight, positioned adjacent the chamber end of the gunbarrehthat withth'e gun barrel structure f rnis a, relatively large opening that frames the target an ithe' conventional front sight when the marksman briiigsthe gun'to his'shoulder forfiring. In'orderto properly see the target, the marksman is forced to look through such opening along the gun barrel, but the opening is wide enough to allow for leading the moving target by a sufficient amount.

The supplemental gun sight of the invention is made of a material that may be permanently magnetized so that it is retained on the gun barrel by magnetic attraction. In the embodiments illustrated herein, the element or member is generally channel or open loop shaped in configuration, it being applied to the gunbarrel structure merely by placing the legs of the member in contact with the barrel structure symmetrically with respect to the line of sight.

The present "invention thus provides a simple device which maybe readily attached to or detached from guns of various makes, and which forces a person, when firing at a target, to put his or her head in proper position to sight along the gun barrel, thereby greatly improving accuracy. 7

One of the principal advantagesof the invention resides in the fact that my device not only hassubstantial universal applicability to all types of shotguns or even rifles, but it is also applied to and removed from the gun in the simplest of manners and does not require the services of a gunsmith, as is ordinarily the case for special sights applied to guns. It is usually used with shotguns having no rear sight, but may be used with guns which do, in

2,861,344 r r e N ws 15% 2 which case my device is preferably mounted just in the rearof the rear gun sight.

Other objects, uses, and advantages will be obvious or become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description and the application drawings.

In the drawings:

Figure 1' is a side elevational view diagrammatically illustrating a single barrel shotgun of a conventional type,

conventional shotgun 12.

' The diagrammatically illustrated. shotgun 12 is of the single shot type and includes a barrel 14, provided with a conventional fore-sight 16, the barrel 14 being secured by pin 19 to receiver 17, which is in turn secured to a conventional stock 20 in any suitable manner. As is well known by those familiar with guns, the chamber end of the barrel 14 is exposed by actuating lever 22 to break the barrel from the gun receiver and expose the breech. A shell-is pushed into the barrel chamber, the breech is closed by holding the stock firmly and pushing upward .on the fore-end 24, and the gun is ready for cocking and firing.

, In operating the-gun 12 the marksman, on bringing the gun to his shoulder, should sight along the barrel to align the sight 16 with the target (or give the target an appro priate lead) before pulling trigger 26. However, many marksmen fail to sight along the barrel, with the result that the shots are above the target.

The device 10, which is designed to force the marks man to sight along the barrel, comprises an opaque and magnetic, substantially U -shaped, and thus generally channel or open loop shaped, element or member 30. The element or member 30 includes abridge section 32 integrally united with a pair of spaced legs or supports 34' that engage the outer surface of the gun barrel. The surfaces 36 that actually contact the gun barrel preferably have a configuration that is complementary to the rounded outer surface of the gun barrel, as shown, though the surfaces 36 may be flat surfaces that are tangent to the barrel.

Preferably, the element or member 30 is of substantial thickness transversely of the barrel, so that when the gun is brought to the shoulder for firing, the marksman is forced to look through the space framed by element or member 30 and the gun barrel structure to view the target. In so doing, the fore-sight 16 and the barrel are properly positioned for ready alignment with the target,

as indicated in Figure 2.

The sight 10 preferably is proportioned as indicated in the drawing, the height of the bridge section 32 above the barrel being inch or less and the bridge section being inch or less in height.

The rearwardly facing surface 40 of the element or member 30 may be formed with indicia 42 calibrated to permit the marksman to properly lead the target.

The element or member 30 is also of sufficient dimension longitudinally of the rifle barrel to insure that it remains in upright position, and it must be permanently magnetized to the appropriate degree to insure that there is sufficient magnetic attraction between it and the gun barrel.

As indicated in Figure 1, the device 10 is mounted on the barrel 14 adjacent the chamber end thereof.

The device may be employed on guns having a rear-sight, in which case the device 10 is preferably located just to the rear of the rear-sight.

My invention is also applicable to double barreled shotguns, as indicated by the embodiment-10a of Figure 3. Double barreled shotgun 50 is intended to represent any conventional gun of this type that includes a pair of barrels52 secured together by an appropriate retaining structure-54 and including for purposes of illustration a conventional fore-sight 16. The element 30a is substantially identical to the element 30 except that it is proportioned so that each leg 34a thereof engages a barrel 52 of the gun barrel structure.

The illustrated embodiments of the invention are both employed in the same manner. The particular device 10 that is to be used in the field may be carried in ones pocket until the. hunting site or place of shooting is reached, and then it may be applied to the gun by merely placing same in contact with the gun barrel structure adjacent the chamber end thereof.

"As shown in Figures 2 and 3, the device together with the barrel structure of the particular gun employed, frame a relatively large sighting opening, or enlarged peep opening', through which the marksman must look if he is to see the target when he brings the gun to his shoulder. The bridge sections 32 and 32a being opaque and of substantial dimension transversely of the barrel structure, the marksman cannot see or sight over the top of the sight 10 to make an error, since the bridge sections form a blind area above the enlarged sight opening through which no peaking is possible.

In looking through this sighting opening at the target, the gun barrel structure is automatically substantially aligned with the target and the marksman is forced to place his head in proper position to sight along the gun barrel structure' Before squeezing the trigger of the gun, it requires little movement of the marksman to accurately align the conventional gun sight with the target (or if necessary, positioning it to provide the desired lead), which action if observed each time a shot is fired results in consistent hits. Thus, by forcing the marksman to sight through the enlarged sight opening provided by my device in cooperation with the gun barrel structure, the attention of the marksman is automatically directed to the proper aligning of the gun with the target that is necessary to insure a hit.

The sight 10 or 10a will remain securely attached to the gun as long as the gun is in use. When it is desired to remove the device, it is only necessary to pull it off the gun, after which it may be placed in ones pocket.

It will be appreciated that not only have I provided a device that insures more consistent hits for hunters and the other marksmen, but I have also provided a gun sight that may be applied to and removed from the gun without requiring the services of a gunsmith. Ordinarily, if special sights are to be applied to guns, the guns must be modified in some manner, and this, of course, requires the relatively expensive services of a trained gunsmith.

The foregoing description and the drawings are given merely to explain and illustrate my invention and the invention is not to be limited thereto, except in so far as the appended claims are so limited, sincethose skilled in the art who have my disclosure before them will be able to make modifications and variations therein without departing from the scope of the invention.

I claim:

1. A readily attachable and detachable rear gun sight for shotguns comprising a one piece, inverted U-shape member of permanently magnetized material, and having leg portions connectedabove by a transverse bridge portion, said leg portions having end faces shaped to conform generally to the shape of that rear portion of the gun barrel to which the member is to" be attached with the magnetic poles adjacent said end faces to form a low reluctance magnetic path of extended area therebetween, the transverse bridge portion of the sight being spaced a substantial distance above the gun barrel when the sight is in place to thereby form with the leg portions of the sight a.relative1y large framed opening through which a person firing the gun may sight when aiming at a target.

,2. A'gun'sight as set forth in claim 1 in which said framed opening'is about three-sixteenths of an inch in vertical extent and the transverse bridge portion of the gun sight is about three-eighth's of an inch in'vertical dimension.

3. A gun sight as set forth in claim 1 in which the rear face of the sight is provided with graduations to assist in establishing appropriate lead angles in sighting the gun.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Elliott Oct.'30, r; 

